


Family Masters

by trickstersGambit



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Adoptive Dad Vlad, Gen, Other, badger cereal, off screen deaths, orphaned children
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 23:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12023727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trickstersGambit/pseuds/trickstersGambit
Summary: Vladmir Masters was named as the Fenton Children's godfather and back up care taker, a role he never thought he'd have to actually step into. Unfortunately things didn't work out that way. Down two friends, Vlad had to step up and take care of the children his friends had brought into the world.That meant stepping out of the role of favorite uncle and into the role of devoted father.





	Family Masters

**Author's Note:**

> I had every intention of turning this into a comic but that's not to be. So we'll see if I can set up art for later chapters instead.

“One day, Vladdie, I'm gonna be a dad.” Jack Fenton slurred, sprawled on his back in the grass next to his best friend, Vladmir Masters, grinning up at the stars.

“Shocking” Vlad teased, snorting softly as he patted Jack’s shoulder. “You, a father. You wouldn't even remember to tie your own shoes if I wasn't there to remind you”

“Aw Vlad-My-Man, you know I get distracted…”

“Of course. You have trouble finishing one idea before you're on to the next one. It's not a bad thing…”

Jack snorted and rolled his eyes, then twisted to look at Vlad. “Seriously, seriously though-- one day I'm gonna be a dad and I'm gonna ask ya t’be my kids goddad.”

Vlad’s brows rose as he looked at his friend in confusion. 

“I. Well. Alright… but who will be the mother in this scenario?”

“Dunno. Maybe Maddie?”

Vlad felt a twinge in his chest as he forced himself to keep breathing normally. He’d had a crush on Maddie since they met her freshman year, but Jack had fallen, too, and Vlad had stepped aside to let Jack have a chance. That was two years ago. It hurt then, it hurt in that moment, still.

It didn't mean he couldn't _try_ to be happy for his childhood friend.

“Well, she's got to agree to that first, and you had best be absolutely sure it's what she wants. You treat her right, Jack.”

“No kidding. She could lick my ass from here to the moon” he sounded lost in the deep end of affection and love, and Vlad felt the hard cut of sorrow. He adored Maddie, but Jack was his best friend, and their relationship meant they were spending a lot of time together, without him.

At least they seemed to be mutually in love. 

“I don't doubt it.”

Two months later the couple announced the conception of their first child, and subsequent engagement, bringing with it a request for Vlad to be present as best man and god father. He forced a smile and agreed.

A week after that, the portal the three of them had been making together failed, releasing a blast of contaminated energy into Vlad’s face.

Pain tore through the student scientist, skin feeling as though it was shoved straight into a pile of burning coals, overwhelming him to the point of a black out. The last thing he heard before he went under was Jack and Maddie crying out in alarm.

The first thing he saw when he woke up was a blur of a quarantine wrap, plastic and the gauze on his face obscuring the figures outside, drugs that kept him more than half asleep washing out the voices and content of conversation beyond the containment.

So much for attending the wedding. Maybe he’d make it to the birth?

Except even that wasn't meant to be. He missed both, staying in the hospital through random bouts of his heart shutting down, skin turning blue, temperature spiking and dropping and the horrible feeling like the center of the earth itself was sitting between his lungs.

He received invitations and noticed in the mail, carefully brought to him by nervous nurses who's been burnt on his fingers, or caught on inexplicably sharp nails. They held everything for him, preventing the all too often sharp spikes of heat from damaging the letters and cards and photos from his friends.

'Its a girl!’ in pink across a white card, a letter detailing her information and the birth written in both parents handwriting, a photo of Maddie in a hospital bed with a tiny red headed baby in her arms. They looked ethereal, and Vlad lamented not being there with them, all the while counting their combined lucky stars that neither of the happy parents, not their developing daughter, has been caught in the blast that locked him in the hospital.

Two years passed, letters came to tell Vlad about their improvement in the field of ectobiology, detailing the projects and experiments they were performing, happily winding on about their daughter, envelopes packed with all kinds of photos and Polaroids of their family and lab. Vlad greedily clung to those photos as his health improved but his status did not. He began to write back, asking questions and helping to troubleshoot problems. 

He told them about his health--leaving out the disturbing developments, like sinking through four stories of the hospital, the occasional bout of hovering three feet off the bed, or the horrifying time he got stuck in an invisible state, they didn't need to know until he had a handle on it. They didn't need to worry, not when they were announcing the conception of a second child, or the birth.

And then he was released, relatively healthy, with moderate control of the weird skills he was developing. Well. Not so much 'released’ as being guilty of overshadowing a resident to abscond so he could meet the bouncing baby family and finally be free of horrible hospital food and the deep, aching loneliness he’d been suffering the past few years.

No amount of letters or photos could make up for the absence of warm human friendship.

Soon enough he was meeting the new members of his old friend’s life. Jasmine and Daniel Fenton. He loved them at first sight, his heart achingly full of adoration for the younglings his beloved friends made together.

He said as much to the couple, coffee in hand as the children took naps on the floor of the living room.

“You’ve done an amazing thing. Two. Amazing things” Vlad said, wistful, almost choking on affection. He's lost almost three years of his life. He didn't have his degree, he didn't have a family, or even real ties to this little one beyond an old friendship… to say he wasn't jealous would be lying. But so would the idea that he wasn't happy for them.

“Well, Vladdie, I'm glad you think that. Maddie's ma doesn't approve-”

“More that she doesn't approve of our profession or--”

“Or Jack?” Vlad supplied “that's ridiculous. Anyone with eyes can see how well you fit together.” He couldn't help but scoff at the idea. Jealousy didn't drown out his devotion to his friend. In another life, maybe, but in that moment? In that life? The one where they remembered to keep him updated? How could he not?

“She's ridiculous” Maddie agreed, sighing down at the cup of coffee her hands were wrapped around. “She's threatened to take the kids away a couple of times. She's trying to demand we put her in our will as their care taker if something happens”

“And something could happen. You were in the hospital for years. Just from a teeny portal. A big one could kill” Jack lamented.

“It. It very well could” he felt like his heart was being squeezed and lit on fire. The idea that this family could be wrenched apart… unacceptable.

“Which is exactly why we want you to be their official godfather. You won't bad-mouth Jack, or make us seem crazy.” Maddie lifted her head to look him in the eye, fire blazing behind them with the force of her determination. “We have the paperwork arranged. All you have to do is sign it.”

How could he say no?

Another two years passed and Vlad began to amass wealth, his inheritance from his father's passing paving the way to new enterprises. Frequent visits to the Fenton home brought more interaction with the children-- Vlad’s new pride and joy-- and the Fenton’s new experiments.

Then, Christmas came. Vlad visited, presents in arm, a recipe for holiday cookies in mind and the firm understanding that the children would be old enough to realize that the holiday brought a war between the lovebirds. The only fight they ever had, the recurring holiday battle that seemed to be the one thing they couldn't agree on.

Vlad couldn't let that leave an impression on them. The minute the argument over the existence of a gift giving fat man occurred, Vlad banished them to their lab, corralling the pair of children to the living room with Christmas carols and stories.

Only the furious cries of the kitchen timer drew him from his unofficial niece and nephew. He entrusted Jazz with the task of holding onto her brother while he got the treats from the oven, not noticing the smaller toddler making his way to the door to the lab.

It was only when he heard the initial cry of distress from beyond the door that he launched himself into the living room, frantically grabbing for the children. Finding only Jazz where he left them, he scooped her up, racing to the only possible location the other child could be, covering himself and the little girl in his intangibility as he reached for the younger child.

The blast tore through the basement, shooting up the stairs and through the door and the body of the child, a day shy of his second birthday, just as Vlad’s fingers managed to touch his arm, half protected by the power Vlad was trying to cling around him.

When the dust settles, Vlad had a crying four year old on his hip, and a limp toddler in the group of his other hand, the smaller of the pair barely breathing as Vlad desperately tried to push his power into the child. The boy was stricken, his parents lost, he couldn't lose him too.

Emergency vehicles arrived on scene, and Vlad forced himself to his feet, Danny cradled against his shoulder, steadily regaining his ability to breathe, and a steadying heart beat, influenced by Vlad's own powers and determination, Jasmine settled on the opposite hip, sobbing into his sweater.

All at once, Vladmir Masters was a father. The official guardian of his oldest and dearest friend's treasured children.

He wanted to cry as much as the little girl on his hip. He didn't have the luxury. He had children to raise, a little boy who would very likely develop like he himself had; a child who would need teaching if he was to ever have a normal life. Mourning could happen later. He had a life to pull together, and two adoptions to set in motion before a viscous grandmother decided to counter his friend’s will.

He wouldn't let Jack and Maddie's memory and wishes be trampled over.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a move tomorrow, and another fic to update this month. Maybe I can get this going once a month, maybe a week after my Voltron fic? We'll see.


End file.
